Attending ex-girlfriend's wedding, arresting the groom's officer on the spot

He picked up his phone and dialed Lu Chuan's number, his tone tinged with regret: "Captain Lu, the black sedan has been found. The owner is Liu Wei, a logistics driver. The vehicle's characteristics and driving trajectory match Chen Jian's description, but after verification, Liu Wei only went to Xiwang Village to deliver documents yesterday afternoon. He passed through Beihe without stopping or getting out of the car, and the vehicle remained parked at the company until the early morning, so there was no time to dispose of the body. His social relationships and activities are also normal, and he has been ruled out as a major suspect. At present, this is just a distracting clue."

Lu Chuan on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment, then said, "Understood. Although the investigation results are not what we are looking for, at least we have eliminated one direction and avoided going down the wrong path. You should return to the riverbank immediately. We will re-examine the traces at the scene and start with clues such as drag marks, cigarette butts, and metal buttons to see if we can find a new breakthrough."

After hanging up the phone, Wang Shuai told his team to pack up the surveillance equipment and prepare to return to the scene. Looking out the window at the receding Xiwang Village, Xiao Li said with a hint of disappointment, "I thought finding the car would lead to a major breakthrough, but it turns out we're just passing through, and the case is back to square one."

Wang Shuai patted him on the shoulder, his tone firm: "That's how clue investigation works. Some clues meet expectations, and some are ruled out. At least we quickly verified this clue in an hour without wasting any more time. When we get back, we'll carefully study the drag marks at the scene to see if we can follow them to find the first dumping point, or we can start with the DNA from the cigarette butt; maybe we'll make some new discoveries."

The police car drove back to the bank of the Beihe River. Wang Shuai got out of the car and immediately went to Lu Chuan, handing him a complete surveillance investigation report: "All of Liu Wei's information has been verified. There was no time or motive for the crime, and the vehicle was just passing by normally. The next step is to focus the investigation on the drag marks at the scene, extend the investigation to the upstream area of ​​the riverbank, and speed up the testing of cigarette butts and plastic fragments in order to find a breakthrough from the physical evidence."

Lu Chuan took the report, glanced at it, and nodded: "Do as you say. Have Yang Lin and Yang Sen expand the investigation area, extending the drag marks towards the highway. At the same time, contact the water resources department and send people to assist in investigating the upstream waters to see if we can find more traces related to the bag. Although the lead of the black sedan has gone cold, there are still many details at the scene worth investigating. We cannot give up."

The sun had risen high, casting its light on the calm surface of the Beihe River. Wang Shuai stood on the bank, watching Yang Lin and Yang Sen resume their investigation. He knew that although this round of surveillance footage review hadn't yielded the expected major clues, each meticulous step in eliminating possibilities was narrowing down the suspect pool and bringing them one step closer to the truth. He took out his notebook, marked "Excluded Suspect" next to "Black Sedan," and then began to analyze other unverified clues from the scene: the DNA from the cigarette butt, the origin of the metal button, the material of the plastic fragments—these subtle pieces of evidence might just be the key to solving the Beihe River floating corpse case.

When Wang Shuai returned to the Beihe River scene with the surveillance footage, Lu Chuan was standing by the riverbank cordon, looking at the distant river and the reeds along the bank. Seeing Wang Shuai approach, he immediately beckoned Yang Lin and Yang Sen over: "The lead on the black sedan has gone cold. Now we need to focus on the scene investigation. You two, start from where the body was found and extend 500 meters upstream and downstream each way. Focus on checking the riverbank soil, reeds, and the junction with the road. The suspect will definitely have fled along the riverbank or road after dumping the body; you might find previously missed tire tracks, footprints, or other items. Remember, the soil in Beihe is damp, so traces may last longer than elsewhere. Be careful, don't overlook anything small."

Yang Lin and Yang Sen nodded, slung their survey bags full of tools back over their shoulders, and began their search downstream from where the body was found. It was nearly noon; sunlight filtered through the leaves onto the riverbank, drying the soil and leaving clear footprints. They put on gloves, Yang Lin turned on his footprint light, scanning the mud along the bank, while Yang Sen, holding a probe, parted the dense reeds, carefully examining every nook and cranny where traces might be hidden.

“The soil downstream is softer, making it easy to leave footprints, but it’s also easily eroded by the water.” Yang Lin squatted down beside a shallow beach, pointing to the messy footprints on the ground. “Most of these were left by villagers or fishermen. The types of shoe prints are too varied to identify any useful clues for now. But look over here,” he said, using tweezers to part a clump of reeds. In the soil at the base of the reeds, the edge of half a tire track was faintly visible.

Yang Sen immediately came over, took out a ruler, and measured the tire tracks against the ground: "The tire tracks are about 25 centimeters wide, which looks like the size of an electric scooter or a small motorcycle tire. The tread pattern is horizontal stripes, which is different from what we saw at the crime scene in the garbage dump." He shone the tire tracks with a footprint lamp and carefully observed the edges: "The edges of the tracks are covered with damp soil and a small amount of waterweed debris, indicating that they were left within 24-48 hours, which basically matches our estimated time range for the body disposal."

Following the tire tracks, the two tracked them for about 30 meters towards the road, where the tracks suddenly disappeared into a gravel beach. “The gravel beach is too hard to leave a clear mark,” Yang Lin straightened up with some regret. “However, we can confirm that the tire tracks extended from the riverbank towards the road. The suspect probably came to dump the body on an electric bike or motorcycle and then left along the road.”

Yang Sen made a discovery in the reeds next to the tire tracks. He picked up a brown fiber with tweezers and examined it closely in the sunlight: "This fiber is rough in texture, like some kind of canvas. Compare it to the material of the canvas bag that wrapped the body?" He took out a fiber sample from the bag he had previously extracted from his investigation bag and compared it with the fiber sample. "The color and texture are very similar. Maybe the suspect tore the bag when it was being moved by the reeds, and the fiber fell off." He put the fiber into the evidence bag. "In addition, there are several crushed marks in the reeds, and sap is still oozing from the broken branches, indicating that they were trampled recently, possibly left by the suspect."

The two continued their search downstream. About 400 meters from where the body was found, near a bend in the road, Yang Lin suddenly stopped: "There are new footprints here!" On the ground, a clear footprint of a size 41 men's athletic shoe was imprinted in the soil, with a stride length of 78 centimeters, a stride width of 17 centimeters, and a 2-degree outward slant—identical to the footprint previously found west of the body. "There's a small amount of white powder in the soil around the shoe print," Yang Lin scraped off a bit with tweezers and put it into a sample bottle. "We can't determine its composition yet; we'll have the forensics department test it when we get back. Also, there's a shallow drag mark next to the shoe print, extending from the road towards the riverbank. The width of the mark is roughly the same as the width of the canvas bag; it was probably left by the suspect dragging the body." (End of Chapter)